


Conversion (and Therapy)

by cassbuttandsquirrel



Series: Barkeep POV [4]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Dean makes inappropriate jokes when he's deflecting, Gen, Humor, POV Outsider, Rated teen for language, idk i've lost my ability to tag, um there's a priest in this??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:21:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27687529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cassbuttandsquirrel/pseuds/cassbuttandsquirrel
Summary: The first time Donnie runs into Dean Remington outside happy hour is a bizarre event.[Donnie meets Dean and a friend (?) at the local butchershop.]
Relationships: Donnie (Supernatural: Inside Man) & Dean Winchester
Series: Barkeep POV [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1769449
Comments: 19
Kudos: 71





	Conversion (and Therapy)

**Author's Note:**

> a brief non-shippy update to this series. (obviously in all my fics dean and cas are meant to be together, but i thought i'd take a break from the overwhelming discourse that is hellerism these days for a bit of a breather.) this takes place a bit earlier I think than Halos Are for Angels, so it's posted out of sequence, but this series is really meant to just be snapshots so I'm going to keep with upload/writing order vs. chronological order of events.  
> hope you enjoy this quick glimpse into donnie's day-to-day and the increasingly banal scenarios he's had to live through. [sorry bud.]
> 
>  **A/N (11-25-20):**  
>  I had several different ways I thought about tackling "case from the outside in a small-town situation" and I landed on what I did here. I had some scenes with the butcher lined up to give some more explanation, but eventually I chose to cut that out (maybe a poor decision).  
> The church is having some sort of problem and the Winchesters have come to the rescue of the very disturbed priest. I always loved that episode where the boys corner a Japanese chef to bless a sword (s7e18) and imagined something similar happening here, with the priest being called in to bless Idk a cow heart or something as part of the ritual to kill such-and-such supernatural creature. That is what happens in the moments before Donnie enters the butchershop, and the blessed bits (lmao) are what Dean is keeping under his arm. When Dean and Father Tim meet up with Sam at the church, things go a bit sideways and they end up burning the whole church in their mission to kill the monster.  
> (much thanks to BulletproofTrash for pulling this explanation out of my brain 😅 hope this helps ground the fic a bit more 😊)

The first time Donnie runs into Dean Remington outside happy hour is a bizarre event.

Not just in the usual banality of seeing someone in broad daylight who you’ve only ever seen lit up by too-sharp neon lighting and decade old incandescent lightbulbs. Bizarre doesn’t even cover Donnie’s feelings about the whole interaction, but it’s the only word he can think of later. 

  


It had been shaping up to be a goddamn shitty day, despite the bright sunshine and cool breeze. The dishwasher had kicked it in the wee hours of the morning when Donnie was trying to catch up on some mess from the night before, and the model was so old that the repairman he’d called in took one look at it and graciously bowed out. The rest of the morning was spent wrestling with the budget to see if he could spend a couple of hundred at the Lebanon Scratch n Dent, but he’d always hated numbers and by the time it was noon, all he had was a headache and a fucking papercut that hurt like hell.

Thankfully, Jim had called from the butcher shop in the town center and Donnie happily took the opportunity to leave the misery of the excel spreadsheet to pick up his usual bulk order. He was in such a bad mood that he didn’t even notice the dusty black impala in the parking lot before he pushed open the narrow glass door.

That’s when Donnie left the earth and landed on a completely different planet.

First, the little bell above the door hasn’t finished jingling before he nearly bowls over Father Timothy, one of his regulars and the priest at First Saints Church.

“Tim! It’s been a while! I got some new draughts you’ll want to try out.” Donnie gives him a wide grin, “Any chance we’ll see you again soon?”

“Uh, yes, soon,” is the father’s very distracted answer to Donnie’s friendly question. He’s a small man and has to stand slightly on his toes to peer over Donnie’s shoulder towards the door. Anxiety is coming off him in waves and Donnie is close enough to notice the beads of sweat at the priest’s receding hairline.

Donnie has never fully subscribed to the “loving, all-knowing deity” business of the church, but Tim gave off that sort of humble contentment that he always envied. Still, after years of wisdom passed back and forth across the bar, he had never set a foot beyond that pointed arch of the whitewashed rectangle down on Main despite their friendship.

Today however, Tim was a different beast, all wide eyes and tapping fingertips so Donnie claps a hand on his shoulder and asks lowly,

“Everything good here, father?”

Tim’s eyes snap back to him and he blinks once, twice, before resting back on his heels.

“Yes,” he swallows, passing a hand unconsciously across his brow, “I’m fine, totally fine.”

He clears his throat and tugs his vest down, stepping back from Donnie and giving him space to sidle by.

_Yeah fucking right,_ Donnie thinks, but is about to let it pass, when the second thing happens.

None other than Dean Remington rounds the corner and claps a firm hand on the priest’s shoulder. Tim jumps a mile, nearly choking, Dean’s grip on his vest the only reason his feet don’t leave the ground.

Dean tosses a charming grin up at Donnie that widens when he recognises who it is.

“Donnie! Hey man!” He doesn’t give Donnie any time to respond. “I’ve got to talk to the father for a moment, if you don’t mind.” The green-eyed man moves to bodily steer Tim away.

“Dean!” he finally gets out, so surprised he’s not sure what he’ll say next, “I didn’t know you were Catholic.”

“Yep!”

“He isn’t”

Dean and Father Tim speak at the same time, the taller man popping the “p” in his response grin stretching to show even more teeth, and the shorter with a reedy, quaking voice. Dean’s knuckles tighten and something shifts in his face but the smile stays in place.

“Ah, just sitting down with Tim here to work out if I’m conversion material.” His voice is light and joking but his eyes are dull and Donnie is reminded, violently, of a shark he saw on a trip to the aquarium when he was 13.

Dean’s got a strange shaped package clumsily wrapped in butcher paper stuffed under one arm and Tim’s eyes are jumping everywhere but there and Donnie’s getting the distinct feeling that now is not a good time for questions.

He runs through a couple of scenarios in his mind.

If Dean really just wanted to talk to Tim - a very normal, not license-to-kill thing to do - then there could be no harm! Maybe Tim is only this nervous because Dean has already confessed the names of all his victims and he has to bear that burden until the grave.

If Dean was actually going to murder Tim - and this, Donnie feels, must be the very worst case scenario - if Dean was actually going to _murder_ the priest, Donnie would immediately be able to report and describe him to the police. After this confrontation, there was very little chance Dean would do something so risky. And if he did, that would mean Donnie would be next on the chopping block, and it was already 12:30 - surely there’s not enough time to commit and cover up two sequential murders before tomorrow? Not to mention the clean up and disposal. There’s cameras here too, thanks to Jim’s problem with local kids lifting knives from his display, so really, it was a bit unthinkable. So, Donnie reasons, are these insane speculations that he’d never have to do if he’d been so lucky as to never hear the name Remington.

“Well, Father, it’s been good catching up.” Donnie shifts slightly to catch and hold Tim’s gaze. “I’ll see you tonight like we planned, huh? Can’t let the pilsners be christened without you!"

Tim clears his throat and looks up at Dean almost for permission, but Dean's eyes are locked on Donnie, calculating, easy smile still frozen in place.

"T-tonight? Tonight!" Tim is well and truly sweating now, blinking rapidly as a dribble slips into his eye crease. "Yes, of course!"

Dean hums, eyes still glued on Donnie and he's not sure when he got the balls of steel to manage it, but Donnie doesn't look away.

"Maybe we'll make a threesome out of it," Dean's joking again, but the tension breaks and Donnie gets a feeling he's passed some sort of test. The feeling is cemented when Dean turns back to throw him a two-fingered wave after the door jangles shut behind the odd couple. Donnie keeps watching as Dean hustles Tim into the passenger seat of his grimy muscle car and pulls out of the lot in a cloud of Kansas dust.

"Hey! Donnie!" It's Jim, catching sight of him from behind the counter.

His headache is back full force, as the insanity of that entire interaction crashes back onto his shoulders. Fuck Dean Remington. Donnie thinks with a vehemence usually solely reserved for failing essential kitchen appliances.

"Jim," he calls back, pasting a tired smile on his face and sauntering toward the back of the shop, "what've you got for me!" 

  


Against all odds, when Donnie pulls up to his bar a few hours later, Father Tim is sitting on the porch waiting for him.

"Father," Donnie nods as he wrestles the lock open and flicks on the lights, "here to help me open up?"

"I had an appointment," Tim's smile looks unsteady, "thought you wouldn't mind if I showed early." 

The true reason for the priest's premature arrival is made infinitely clear as he proceeds to drink himself under the bartop for the rest of the night and at closing time, Donnie drives him home out of pity as well as for his own peace of mind.

He slams on his brakes when they turn onto Main, rousing his dozing passenger. The moon casts silver on scorched beams and blackened brick where First Saints used to stand.

"What the fuck?" Donnie whispers, in shock, then louder, "Tim, what happened to the church?"

The priest says something, but it's muddled by uncooperative lips and there's a glisten in his eyes before he slumps back into the seat.

It's only later when he's sitting in his car, watching as Tim finally unlocks his door after 5 fumbling efforts, that Donnie realises he needs more than just a holiday.

_Therapy,_ he thinks, _we're all gonna need goddamn therapy._

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoyed this fic!! there are definitely more coming down the pipeline:  
> \- Donnie having a one-night stand with a familiar face 👀👀  
> \- Donnie and Cas at the Lawrence County farmer's market (Sam's there too!!!)  
> and more...  
> (Kevin's mom might make an appearance??? Can't promise that one though - it's pretty angsty 😬)
> 
> the chronology of all this might get screwed so we'll see!
> 
> all the best to you and yours!
> 
> If you'd like to find me, I am on [ Twitter ](https://twitter.com/librarian_gamer?s=07) dealing with all the finale fallout.


End file.
